Prosecutor's Office of KBR intervenes with medical treatment of newborn baby of members of Jehovah's Witnesses community

The Prosecutor's Office of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) obliged the Chief Doctor of the Perinatal Centre not to break the law during the medical treatment of a newborn baby of members of the community of Jehovah's Witnesses. Parents refused blood transfusion and insisted on an alternative medical treatment. The baby's mother denies the information about the refusal of medical treatment.

According to the Republic's Prosecutor's Office, on this October 15, the Perinatal Centre of the KBR's Ministry of Public Health hospitalized "a local woman, who on that very day gave birth to her daughter," states the website of the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation.

The newborn in critical condition was transferred to the resuscitation ward. Meanwhile, her mother, a member of a religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses, who learned about the condition of her daughter and "need for blood transfusion for her, refuse in writing to provide the baby with medical treatment for religious reasons", the statement of the Prosecutor's Office reports.

The KBR's Prosecutor's Office warned the Chief Doctor of the Perinatal Centre about inadmissibility of violating the law with regard to a possible refusal of medical care to the newborn baby.

Grigory Martynov, the representative of the Administrative Centre of Jehovah's Witnesses" in Russia, told the "Caucasian Knot" that, contrary to the report of the Prosecutor's Office, on October 15, 2012, "none of the members of Jehovah's Witnesses in Nalchik gave birth to a daughter. The family welcomed the birth of a son, whose number of platelets appeared to be reduced."

According to Grigory Martynov, who referred to the words of the mother of the newborn baby, the doctors provided him with medical care without blood transfusion, using alternative medical treatment. At present, the baby was transferred to a general ward, and his mother visits him and feeds him.

"The parents of the baby did not refused and do not refuse of medical care, and they do their best to ensure the provision of essential and quality medical treatment to him," Grigory Martynov says.

"We felt extremely indignant when we learned that it was reported as if we refused of the medical treatment of our baby. We could not imagine anything that would be further from the reality. We ask the doctors to use alternative methods, which have been successfully applied," the press service of the organization of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia quoted the mother of the newborn baby as saying.